Uganda – Kapchorwa

Description

ABOUT THIS COFFEE
Kapchorwa is located on the high slopes of Mt. Elgon, an inactive volcano in Eastern Uganda, on the border with Kenya.
The Kapchorwa washing station was built in 2010 and today serves 907 producers who are organized into 35 producer organizations (POs). They can also be divided into those who live at high altitudes (1,800–2,200 masl), close to the station; and those who live at medium altitudes (1,650–1,800 masl), at the bottom of a steep cliff below the washing station.
On average, farm sizes are 1 hectare (2.5 acres), farmers each have around 978 coffee trees, and 75 to 90 percent of a farm’s acreage is dedicated to coffee.
Coffee is often grown in complex intercropping systems that combine trees of various ages and varieties with shade trees, banana trees, beans and cocoyam (also known as taro). To protect the fields from soil erosion, farmers use shade trees, contour trenches, vegetative contours and mulch.

PROCESSING DETAILS
Farmers deliver their coffee cherries to the wet mills during the day. Each delivery is overseen by a field officer who makes sure at least 95 percent of the cherries are red and fully ripe. If they’re not, the farmer must move to a sorting area to sort the coffee until the standard is achieved.
Once approved, the cherries are taken into the hopper and then pulped in the evening with a Penagos machine, which separates the floaters and small beans from the premium coffee.
Premium and second-grade coffees are separately fermented for 12 hours overnight. The next morning, the coffee is floated on the washing bay, where mucilage and any remaining floaters are removed. The parchment
is then placed outside in dripping trays to dry for the rest of the day. A combination of sun and mechanical drying is used to bring the moisture down to 12 percent. Each lot is kept in a separate stack with its complete analysis attached.

SPECS:

GEOGRAPHY
Region: Kapchorwa
Altitude: 1,650–2,200 MASL

PRODUCER
Kyagalanyi

VARIETY
SL14, SL28, Bugisu Local

PROCESSING
Machine washed, dried in the sun in dripping trays and in mechanical dryers.